Chances are if you're a fan of zombie films and The Walking Dead, you already think I'm an asshole.

But please hear me out, as I'm one of you!

I was bitten by the zombie fairy some time ago. It may have started with The Return of the Living Dead somewhere between Linnea Quigley’s (aka Trash, the pink-haired punk-rockette,) nude scene, that puts Jamie Lee Curtis' flashing in Trading Places to shame and to no lesser extent, Thriller by Michael Jackson.

This was the golden era of zombie cinema.

Today's fast-moving rabid zombie, bear little resemblance to the slow 80's version. I say George A. Romero and John Russo got it right; zombies move at a relentless, yet dragging pace. No matter how many you kill, their numbers keep growing. This establishes a Hitchcock-style atmosphere and plays far more like a psychological terror than pure gore.

Not that I'm saying The Walking Dead is gory, it just simply isn't a psychologically terrifying show. It's essentially a soap-opera that just-so-happens to have zombies.

Whether they are vampires, werewolves, mummies or zombies, the 'creatures' are the vehicle used to deliver an entertaining experience of artificial terror. In zombie film, they are the antagonist, in The Walking Dead they seem more like window-dressing.

Instead of using the zombie backdrop to deliver chills and thrills, we get Melrose Place. To keep us zombie lovers happy we get 15% of gratuitous zombie-filler per season.Written and directed by Dan O'Bannon; The Return of The Living Dead was my personal favorite in the genre. It was genuinely frightening, and scared the shit out-of-me as a kid. The 'trioxin' theme, "brains!", Dan Calfa...this movie really works! And it works because it knows what it is; it's a show about the release of Trioxin 245 (a Monsanto product no doubt) in a small town, which causes the dead to re-animate with a craving for zombie-soma: brains. The show rocks, never sells the fans out, and has fun in the process! The Walking Dead however, knows only that it needs ratings! I can just see the executives in the boardroom as they graph out male-to-female demographics. In order to get a women’s audience, they must have 'Will Glenn kiss the farm girl?' storylines...HECK...the zombie fanatics will watch regardless...fuck 'em.I recently interviewed Matt Mogk ,the founder of the Zombie Research Society. I must say, he is a Grade-A gentleman and a fan of The Walking Dead. Matt Mogk was also a guest on The Talking Dead, AMC's aftershow. Matt felt that 'yes, there are problems here and there with the show (TWD), but it's a show about zombies! I love it'. In other words, its not perfect, but for a zombie fan it's the best we're gonna get.Now, I'm not expecting every minute of every episode to have endless action without storyline or subplots, that wouldn't make good TV for long and a series can't sustain itself if all of the stars get killed in every-other episode.Related article:The Walking Dead Sucks! The Season 4 Premiere in Review

But, mark my words; if The Walking Dead continues down the path of Season 2, it won't see Season 5. Remember Heroes?No one would have thought that after Season 1, Heroes would fizzle only 2 seasons later. But, it did from excessive usage of deus ex machina and shitty sub-plots. Audiences are smarter than ever! If they detect manipulation, as in the case of The Sopranos, they will lose interest.

Would you take out the Trash?

"....To me, the best zombie movies aren't the splatter fests of gore and violence with goofy characters and tongue in cheek antics. Good zombie movies show us how messed up we are, they make us question our station in society... and our society's station in the world. They show us gore and violence and all that cool stuff too... but there's always an undercurrent of social commentary and thoughtfulness.Give me "Dawn of the Dead" over "Return of the Living Dead" any day. To me, zombie movies are thought provoking, dramatic fiction, on par with any Oscar worthy garbage that's rolled out year after year. Movies that make you question the fabric of our very society are what I like. And in GOOD zombie movies... you get that by the truckload."~ Robert Kirkman, creator, writer and letterer of The Walking Dead graphic novel series.

The Walking Dead Graphic novel is brilliant, nicely bound and costs $9.99 in the store (remember when comics were a dime? ... I don't... I'm 32 years old).But from the words of Robert Kirkman, we're getting exactly what was intended... perhaps the show hasn't sold out after all.In art, people are sure to disagree. It's not all-together a bad show either and the headline is far too harsh in conclusion.The first episode, directed by Frank Darabont was brilliant, the closing scene totally surreal. I would even say the entire first season is excellent with deliberate pacing and riveting action.Another scene of note (there are many) comes from the second episode; "Guts". Rick and Glenn walk through a hoard of zombies covered in chopped zombie guts, intestines, brain goo to mask their smell of living flesh. Unfortunately, it starts to rain. My complaints really come out of the second season, which could have been trimmed from 13 episodes to the first season's order of 6. More than half of the second season is filler.Does The Walking Dead Suck? No, but it's getting close and may I suggest it's not the show zombie fans were hoping for.I can't wait for Season 3!~ Russell is the host of The West Coast Truth